The invention is relates to a bar steel rolling mill as well as a method for operation thereof. The method includes providing rolling stands arranged on one pitch line or one axis of rolls, which are combined into one roughing train, at least one intermediate train and one finishing train, wherein a cooling segment for thermomechanical finish rolling located on the pitch line is located directly upstream of the finishing train. Thermomechanical finish rolling refers to cooling of the material to be rolled for all of the existing cross-sections to a comparatively low rolling temperature of approximately 750.degree. C., so that finish-rolling is always at the same rolling temperature independent of the dimensions of the material to be rolled, in order to obtain a texture favorable for further processing and so as to suppress cinder formation (see, for example, DE 25 37 684 C2 and EP 0264 868 A2).
It is common in the art, when operating continuous bar steel- or wire steel rolling mills, to simply switch off an appropriate number of roll pairs, to open the sizing passes or to make entire roll stands ineffective by removing them, when changing from smaller finish cross-sections to larger finish cross-sections (DE 25 17 894 A1, second paragraph). This type of process can, however, not be reconciled with the principle of thermomechanical finish rolling for the reason that, for larger dimensions of material to be rolled, a series of roll stands of the intermediate train or intermediate trains are to already roll finished cross-sections, without the material to be rolled being previously cooled for thermomechanical finish rolling, since the cooling path is directly upstream of the stand location for the finish train for smallest dimensions, meaning it is downstream of all remaining stands. The only way out of this situation is to utilize the roll stands of the finish train for performing finishing passes for any dimensions of the material to be rolled, in order words, to respectively rebuild the finishing train when changing the program or to adapt it to the cross-section to be rolled by changing the stand. The possible advantage of being able to finish roll already on one rolling stand of the intermediate train or the intermediate trains is thereby lost.